What Are You Reading Lately?

Bill Maher interviewed Dan Rather on his show last night. Heavy duty. Two highly intelligent, well informed minds exchanging opinions and information.
Part of the conversation concerned the corporatization and consolidation of media. In 1983 when Rather was at CBS, there were 50 media companies, separately owned, that were involved in national distribution of the news.
Now, because of corporatization and consolidation, there are six. Six huge corporations that control over 80% of the national distribution of the news.
Rather's point, and Maher's as well, was that these companies are in bed with influential Washington politicians because the corporations need things from the government and the government needs to control what the public knows. Rather said the average person has no clue how much control these people have over what we see, hear and read.
Those are frightening words.
Not news, nothing new, but frightening because they were spoken by Dan Rather. Dig this guy. He got fired from CBS in 2004 because he reported that George W. Bush used connections to get himself into a privileged unit of the National Guard to avoid service in Viet Nam. Then he disappeared from the unit for a year.
A soldier in Afghanistan goes missing for a day he is AWOL; more than that he is considered a deserter.
Rather had the guts to report the truth, and because CBS was uncomfortable with the story and especially because they were getting pressure from the White House, Rather got fired.
Lenny Bruce talked about censorship of the news, George Carlin talked about censorship of the news. My generation fought against corporate control and the lies that result.
None of this is new. All of it is true.
Dan Rather said the corporatization and politicalization of the news has resulted in the trivialization of the news.
Right on Dan.
Think about this. You are not getting the truth, you are getting what others want you to believe is the truth. Think about how that impacts what you know, what you think, what you do.
It might have sounded radical coming from Bruce or Carlin or Jerry Rubin but it sounds pretty heavy coming from Dan Rather.
Let me tell you folks - we are living in an LSD world.
Nothing is as it seems and it's all designed to keep you down.
Rather pointed out that in the old days, news reporting was kept somewhat honest because it was considered to be, at least in part, a public service. Networks didn't expect the news operations to make money; the shows catering to American stupidity made the money.
But that has changed. Once again Gordon Gekko rears his ugly head.
Guys like Bruce and Carlin and Christopher Hitchins and many other deep thinkers like them lived to question everything, believe nothing, accept nothing at face value.
That's the only way to fly, baby.